Chandigarh Mayor Manoj Sonkar, who emerged victorious in the mayoral elections in January, has stepped down from his position following accusations of rigged polls.
His resignation comes a day before the scheduled Supreme Court hearing regarding the alleged election tampering in the mayoral election.
He emerged victorious in the election, which was considered the initial political showdown against the INDIA bloc, by defeating Kuldeep Kumar of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on January 30th.
The BJP garnered 16 votes, while Kuldeep Singh, the combined candidate of the Congress and AAP, secured 12 votes.
A controversial matter emerged when 8 votes were considered invalid, leading to tension between the BJP and the opposition.
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Meanwhile BJP leader Arun Sood told PTI that three AAP councillors from Chandigarh have joined BJP.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in alliance with the Congress for the mayoral elections, approached the Supreme Court with a video allegedly depicting the presiding officer tampering with the ballot papers while counting votes.
The Supreme Court expressed shock at the reported tampering of ballot papers, stating that it 'murdered democracy'. As a result, the court mandated the preservation of both the ballots and the video recording of the electoral process.
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CJI DY Chandrachud expressed, "Is this the behaviour of a returning officer? He looks at the camera, and defaces the ballot obviously."
The Chandigarh administration postponed the mayoral election, which was initially set for January 18, to February 6 due to the presiding officer's illness. But the high court ordered the administration to conduct the mayoral elections at 10 am on January 30th.
